Monday, September 22, 2008

Tales from the Playground: The Dirty Rat

A little boy of Thumper's age (almost exactly, in fact) climbed up the single step and stood on the slightly raised platform with two older kids. The girl, probably between two and three, put her hand on his chest, straightened her arm, and launched him right back off the step he just climbed and flat onto his back. He cried; his mother came running. Her mother, who was bottle-feeding a near-newborn, hadn't seen the incident and said, "Oh, he fell!" I said, "Actually, she pushed him."

The next thing I know, the girl's mother hands the tiny baby to her friend and pulls a wooden spoon out of her purse! She carries around a wooden spoon! She yanked the girl over by the arm, and whacked her a good one on the bare back of her leg. I couldn't believe it! Is it me, or does that strike you as an incredibly ballsy thing to do in a public place in this day and age?

I feel horrible. I ratted her out, and she got whacked. I mean, she was an aggressive little snot, but now I think I understand from whom she's learning that aggression.

as a parent, one time each, i have threatened to pull the car over and give my child a spanking if they did not stop whatever behavior they were doing.

in both cases, once with each child, i pulled the car over, got the offending little person out of their carseat, gave them two swats on thier backside, buckled them back into their carseat, and continued on.

from that point forward, just the threat of pulling over for a spanking was enough to quell the offensive behavior.

both times, i was terrified that someone had seen what i had done, and would report me to CPS.

now, carrying a wooden spoon goes 'way to far, in my book - one or two swats with a bare hand to a rear end is enough to get the point across, i think.

the poor big sister - she needs an example of how to play nicely with other kids, even if the new baby in her family is getting all the attention

I don't know about the whole CPS thing. A lot of people do things in a lot of different ways, and a lot of them aren't anything like what I would do, but... Is one whack on the back of the leg from a wooden spoon an arrestable offense? CPS has a lot worse than that to worry about. I didn't ask her for a playdate, but I don't think she needs to go to jail or have the state taking her kids.

Yep, she struck me as a good Christian woman. For some reason, long braided hair and long skirts say "good Christian woman" to me. I'm surprised the spoon wasn't decorated, maybe painted with little flowers and the chapter/verse citation for "spare the rod..." etc.